THE story of pioneering Hunslet diesel shunter No. 1697 (LMS No. 7401, 7051) really begins back in 1927 when the Hunslet Engine Company’s managing director Edgar Alcock gave a job to his son John, who had recently graduated from Clare College in Cambridge with a Master’s degree in science. Alcock senior tasked Alcock junior with developing and bringing into production diesel-powered locomotives.
Local Leeds manufacturing rivals Hudswell Clarke and John Fowler had both already produced diesel locomotives, so Alcock senior was determined to see if Hunslet could produce successful versions for itself.
He was aided in this endeavour by an amazing series of events in distant Stokeon-Trent. Engineering writer L T C Rolt, in his autobiography Landscape with Machines, vividly relates the story of the disappearance of locomotive manufacturer Kerr, Stuart and Company’s chairman and the subsequent liquidation of the company by creditors due to financial impropriety. But Hunslet bought the goodwill of the bankrupt company, and part of that included two newly-completed diesel locomotives, one narrow and the other standard gauge.
Kerr, Stuart & Co had been producing diesels for a few years prior to its liquidation with some success. The narrow gauge example had been around a bit before reaching Hunslet’s works in Jack
